soccer geekiness galore

[winterbadger]

... and went to the United for DC charity kickoff luncheon this afternoon. It was held at Top of the Town, which is pretty cool and stowed away on a hillside in Arlington I'd never thought much about. Very nice little neighborhood; my friend Kim told me she and a workmate had gone to an open house at one of the nearby cond developments, just out of curiousity, and found them (a) just as posh as they looked and (b) running about $1 mil apiece... I would *love* to watch the 4th of July fireworks from this place! Anyone with a few thousand extra $, let's talk...

The lunch was good, the speakers (Catherine Marquette, Kevin Payne, Stephen Zack, Peter Nowak) were interesting, though they didn't say anything I hadn't heard at one of the other meetings recently. But it was cool to see all the players! Everyone was there, all the team, including Jaime Moreno--I'm guessing his signing is pretty much a done deal. I shook hands with Nick Rimando and wished him well, let him know we're all looking forward toseeing him back in the nets. Shook hands with Ben Olsen and wished him the best as well; he's got a buzz cut and looks more like my friend Tim Mayhew than ever. We had coach Nowak and TD Dave Kasper at our table. Talked a bit about the trip to Charleston, the team, then got diverted to searching the DC skyline for points of interest.

There was a silent auction and a raffle. I didn't win the raffle prize, but I did pick up a few things at the silent auction, including a Blackburn Rovers shirt autographed by Dwight Yorke, a Kansas City jersey autographed by the whole team (I can get it mounted with our photo of Chris with Tony Meola from the MLS Cup 2000 postgame party), and a Chicago Fire 2003-season-team-signed ball and fan pack (a cool gym bag, a fire T-shirt that I promptly got Nowak to sign, and some other stuff). Heck, the money goes to a charity that sponsors reading programs in inner city schools and brings underpriviledged kids to DC United games.

It was fun to see and talk to players and other fans; I'm thinking I'll go the awards dinner at the end of the season too. It's another charity event, and it's at the State Theater, not very far from home.

Comments

[kathygnome.livejournal.com]

That sounds like so much fun!

[winterbadger]

It was pretty cool. I wish (a) I had been a bit braver about going and mingling with the players (b) had some interesting questions to ask the players and (c) brought something special to get autographs. Peter was pretty surprised, and had a big grin, though, when I came up to him with the Fire t-shirt. :-)